Separate Checks
by icebreather
Summary: The crew go out to eat  and River rescues Jayne from a woman's evil intentions. Rayne, with touches of MalInara and SimonKaylee.
1. Chapter 1

The little bar was homey and welcoming, its lighting golden yellow and muted by a dark plank floor. The half-timbered interior arched in interesting places and formed spaces that felt private even though it was really all one open area. River appreciated the room's aura, though she wished it had a less deceptive character. Hideaways should be true hideaways.

But there were cloth napkins and a hostess; the tables were served by waitresses; and at the end of the room a long bar gleamed with polished cleanliness. River breathed in the rich piney smell and let a part of herself relax. She'd been able to do that more and more, as time moved and with it milestones. Kaylee and Simon moved into the same room. River celebrated her eighteenth birthday. Mal and Inara passed several days without a harsh word between them.

It wasn't common that this many of Serenity's lot congregated in one place dirtside, but in the three or so months since the battle on Mr. Universe's moon Zoë had built a barrier around herself that none of them could breach. So when she finally broke that wall with tears and collapsed into a soggy puddle right at the dinner table, Mal had listened when she demanded they all leave her alone. He'd dragged them away from the meal they'd yet to begin, commanding the tearful Zoë to put the food away before it spoiled, and then took the remaining crew all the way off Serenity and into the nearby town. To give his first mate space for grieving, he said. River had felt Serenity that way, at that moment, a grieving space that wanted Wash back.

No one had argued with the captain. Inara was puzzling her way through the new softness between herself and Mal, and valued a non-ship atmosphere in which to explore it. Kaylee and Simon were happy anywhere together, in the way of the newly infatuated. Jayne ... well, the place had a bar. And likely there'd be whores, too.

River was testing the limits of her newfound stability and once they'd been seated she insisted on ordering for herself. No one quite yet trusted that stability, and Simon tried to tell her what would be best.

"No alcohol," he strictured, from his place beside Kaylee. River frowned across the linen-covered table at him. "It's true you're weaned down to quite low doses, now, but it could still interact badly with your meds."

I don't care about the alcohol," she replied, "I care about the ordering."

Simon cocked his head. "You want to place your own order?"

River rolled her eyes, which made Jayne snort from his chair beside her. They'd ended up together by default because the others had paired up on the other sides of the triangular corner table. Mal and Inara had one wall, Jayne and River the second, and Kaylee's and Simon's backs were to the open room because they were the only ones whose psyches could handle that.

Though Jayne no longer fussed about Simon and his sister being on Serenity, he and River just didn't get along smooth. They argued with or mocked or ignored each other by turns. For River those squabbles with Jayne had become odd playtimes. And under his gruffness and growls, she knew that he was at least occasionally entertained by them too.

"I want to DECIDE my own order. Doctor's orders don't belong at the dinner table." River was 85 percent certain she'd said that correctly. Her mouth and her brain were much more clearly connected, recently. She could talk and act and sometimes even think not-crazy.

Simon was insistent. "But no alc" –

"No alcohol!" River confirmed stridently, overriding him. Jayne laughed openly at that. It seemed the only time he wasn't annoyed with her was when he was amused or awed by her.

"Alliterative Jayne," she murmured. That, perhaps, wasn't not-crazy, because it earned her that annoyed frown with which she was well-acquainted from the merc. River sighed, but it was a comfortable sort of sigh. Jayne was so familiar, a known equation. He had excellent parameters.

And she wasn't the only one who noticed. There was a woman at the bar – River let her mind open just a bit more – yes, a whore. Her hair was too pale a blonde to be natural, and her dress was revealingly but not trashily cut. She was looking about the room for the best employment with which to start her night. And giving Jayne much consideration as top choice. The pale prostitute wasn't the only one, either; another woman, this one at a table and accompanied by a male friend, had turned her thoughts to the large unknown man at the corner table. Intrigued, River searched further and delved out the reasons why.

Appealing facial symmetry. Firmly defined musculature. Those were easy enough to pick out of the other woman's brainpan. The other things were buried deeper and took a bit longer. Ah, his hands, big and strong and careful ... not they themselves, but what the woman felt they revealed about his character.

'_Skilled and gentle. Knows what he wants but would have a care for what I wanted, too_.' That's what the woman was thinking. River pulled back mentally, impressed. Could someone really see that much of another without the advantage of the Reading River could do? River longed to step into Jayne's own head and see whether his memories of past sexual encounters confirmed the woman's impression. But every crew member had taken time to strongly impress upon her that for the sake of politeness, and mutual health and wellbeing, she wasn't to be Reading crew.

"No servicing crew," River murmured. Kaylee looked over questioningly while Inara started in her seat. Mal flushed a darkish red. Simon's brows went up at those reactions, and Jayne grinned, amused again. Well, sometimes she just picked things from around her and didn't really know where they came from. She shrugged apologetically at the pair who were frowning, though she didn't know for what, precisely.

A grandmotherly waitress was approaching to take their table's order.

"What can I get you three lovely couples tonight?" she asked, flipping out a pad with a screen to enter their orders.

"Three?" Simon and Jayne both voiced, but they were cut short by the captain.

"Separate checks," Mal asserted hastily, which distracted somewhat from Simon's wince at the waitress's assumption about his sister and Jayne, and from Jayne's confused frown. River stifled a giggle as she watched the mercenary mentally count couples; one, two ... and then the 'hey!' on his face as he counted themselves. First he looked rather outraged. Then he caught her grin, and returned it with a mocking eyebrow waggle. River rolled her eyes.

"Separate checks?!" exclaimed Kaylee. "If we was on the ship we'd all be eating out of common stores!"

Mal scowled at her. "We ain't on the ship". He nodded firmly at the waitress, whose nametag said 'Maude'. "Separate checks."

Kaylee huffed.

"Please put hers on mine," Simon told Maude, laying a hand over Kaylee's on the table. Kaylee's huffiness dissolved into a cotton candy smile, and she leaned in to kiss Simon's cheek. River supposed it was a good thing her brother was getting a cut of the occasional job, now. The woman smiled down at him approvingly and entered what Simon and Kaylee told her, then tapped the key to clear the screen for the next order.

Kaylee had turned to eye her captain expectantly. Inara made a point of studying the small menu. Mal puckered his brow bemusedly at his mechanic and started to order.

"Their bill is together too," Kaylee said to the waitress. Inara's head came up from her menu. Kaylee narrowed her eyes ferociously at the captain, and River stifled a giggle when Mal hemmed, glanced surreptitiously at the Companion, then nodded small. Inara ordered without a pause, calm and confident. But the hand she laid beside Mal's on the table was slow and hesitant.

Maude, smiling again, had once more cleared her screen to enter the next order. Jayne took twice as long as anyone had yet, giving her a lengthy list of what to bring him. She got it all right the first time, a veteran at her job, and turned to River. Simon was opening his mouth to say his sister's meal would be on his bill, too, when Jayne noticed that Maude hadn't cleared his order from her screen.

"Hey," he declared, sitting forward in his chair, "I ain't payin' for the moonbrain." He pointed firmly at Simon. "Her order goes on his. We ain't together." He'd raised his voice so that any interested females at nearby tables could hear. "She ain't with me."

The waitress's smile had disappeared. River kicked Jayne under the table, and he jerked, then swung violently toward her.

"Maude comprehends," she told him serenely, but with a glare behind her eyes. "The dim-brain and the genius are not together." She posed a mournful expression at the waitress, though she felt a smile trying to get out.

"He is not mine," she said. "If he were he would not be in that shirt." She aimed a disdainful eyebrow at the clothing article in question. Of them all, he had been the only one to dash to his bunk and change clothes at the news that they were going out. He wore a button-up shirt. A rather distasteful button-up shirt with stripes on it ... Maude nodded, sympathetic comprehension in her face.

Jayne didn't take offense to the slur on his clothing, just sat back with a growl.

"My bill is my own," River said, and ordered to forestall the words Simon was again opening his mouth to say. Kaylee leaned in to whisper in her lover's ear and he subsided.

River turned back to the group as Maude walked away, to notice that neither Mal's nor Inara's hands were visible. There was a studied lack of eye contact on that side of the table. River fought a battle with herself about Reading them, and then resorted to more plebian tricks. She reached her arms out in a fake stretch and knocked her napkin to the floor. Then she ducked swiftly to pick it up while looking across under the table. Yes, Inara's right hand was folded into Mal's left one, balanced on his knee. When River's head reappeared above the table, she was smiling at what she'd seen.

There was juice, more than one kind and fresh, available here. River downed the glass of pineapple that she'd ordered before her meal even arrived, and was finishing another of pear when the waitress brought their plates. She drained one of orange juice with the first half of her meal and felt a building need for the toilet.

She pushed her chair back and headed to the sign marked 'bathroom'. She had to pass the bar to get there, and the whore with the pale blonde hair who'd been eying Jayne chose that moment to stand abruptly from her stool. Passing her as she did so, River's skin met the other's for an instant, too quickly for her to pause in her steps.

But for that split second River was bombarded with thoughts, images, and emotions. Enough that she had to stop to catch her breath and bearings, though the other woman walked away without a glance back. She was headed to the table River had just left.

Her needed for the toilet pushed aside and forgotten, River swiveled back around and followed the other. Intentions not her own echoed in her head. That woman had reprehensible plans, and aimed to enact them on ... River saw where she was headed, and sighed. Of course it would be Jayne. River had to think of a way to stop her without disturbing the pleasant evening too badly.

Jayne had caught the eye of the woman of the night who was sitting at the bar, and swiftly recovered from that annoyance with the waitress. This day was turning out to be much better than what he'd thought he'd be getting, when he woke up this morning. And now, here she came, standing up and passing River and sashaying her hips just enough to say 'I'm looking for a man's attention'. She came right up to their table, and he leered at her over his whiskey glass to let her know he was waiting for her. She was full in all the right places. She paused beside him, one hip jutting out, and flipped her nice, if short, hair. She opened her full, very red lips.

"Hey, there," she started. And didn't get any further. Because out of nowhere – hadn't the crazy girl gone to the restroom?! – long non-whore legs were curving against Jayne's; a bony little ass was settling onto his lap; and a round shoulder was leaning into his front as if it belonged there.

Jayne's thigh muscles tensed but for a split second that was _all_ he could do. He stared in shock at a close side-view of River's face. He heard the crew's various, mostly loud reactions, but his own usually dependable reflexes had deserted him. He'd dropped his glass of whiskey back into its place, he realized. One of his arms on the table and one hanging at his side, both felt numb. Till now the most up close and personal he'd gotten with River there had been a knife and blood involved, or deception and betrayal; and here she was squirming around coyly in his lap. Alarm accompanied by something else spiked through him.

River was ignoring Inara's shock, Kaylee's and Simon's questions, and Mal's escalating threats. She aimed a resolute stare at the whore, smiling in a hard cold way.

"This one is taken," she said decisively, twining the fingers of one slender hand under Jayne's collar. Her words sent a shock through his solar plexus, while her fingernails dug sharply into the skin at the back of his neck. The two sensations compined to startle him out of his confusion, and he was finally able to tense his arms to shove her off him. The whore's hands were on her hips; he'd been giving her the eye pretty obviously, after all, even when River had been sitting right next to him. He was gonna lose the woman if he didn't get Crazy off him fast.

River forestalled him by running a hand over his chest, through his shirt finding the exact path of the scar she'd given him half a year ago. That tensed him up even more, but also gave him pause at the damage he knew this skinny young girl could inflict if she chose. And now she leaned her head in close to his, her hair brushing his neck, and whispered to him.

Simon had stood and was trying, without touching, to get his erratic sister to remove herself from what he considered a dangerous situation. But Jayne didn't hear him over the sensation of River's breath in his ear. For a minute he was feeling too much of her – her rear end, not quite as skinny as he'd first thought, resting firmly on sensitive portions of his anatomy. The side of her rounded chest pressed itself up against his own. Lithely muscled arms slid about him disconcertingly and then her _tongue_ was licking the outer curve of his ear.

He jumped at that, and Mal was now on his feet along with Simon. Inara and Kaylee kept talking. But he heard River's whisper cutting through their noise.

"She has evil in her thoughts," she murmured, and he knew immediately she wasn't talking about herself. Her fingernails were leaving scratches below his hairline. "She picks the biggest in the room to lure into sex; they last longest when she uses her knives in her bed in the dark. The big ones bleed more. She likes the blood. Tempts them to let her tie them, then makes it flow. Streams then rivers."

Jayne frowned, discomfited, and angled his head around the girl in his lap to get a better look at the blonde whore. She couldn't have heard River's words, and raised challenging brows at him, a look that said "are you gonna let the little woman ruin your fun?" She angled her ample chest at him for added incentive. But it had somehow lost some of its appeal.

"_Truth,_ Jayne," River hissed. He winced as her nails broke skin underneath his collar. "That one is a predator, and none of her prey have ever escaped. It has been weeks since she last killed, her thirst rages."

Jayne looked at the standing woman one more time. She smiled seductively, and he really considered taking his chances. River growled in his ear, and he jerked again. Then he sighed.

"Sorry," he told the blonde, shrugging. "Not tonight."

The woman's eyes widened. Yeah, he couldn't blame her for being surprised.

"Really?" She wanted to know, running a hand suggestively along the back of River's empty chair. Her persistence was becoming suspicious. If she was really in it for the money she was wasting some, taking up all this time with him. Seemed River had the right of it.

"_Leave_." River snarled the single word, tensing forward with her eyes narrowed, and the expression on her face alarmed even Jayne though it wasn't directed at him. Huh. He wondered, just briefly, at the depth of the fierceness of her. The blonde finally backed away hastily with her hands raised. River inclined back into the mercenary's chest, running the hand that had been damaging his neck up into his hair. Her fingers twined there distractingly. Her head settled into his chest until the other woman regained her seat at the bar.


	2. Chapter 2

"That all true?" Jayne asked down at the girl, still not quite wrapping his brain around the fact that she was curled up in his lap. She twitched her face up to scowl at him. She also hitched her little bottom around, and her skirt rode up even higher on her thighs, giving Jayne's heart an excitement-spurred lurch.

"I _said_ it was."

"Well, then," _why hadn't she quit playing with his hair yet?_ "Thanks. I guess." He really couldn't drag up much annoyance that he'd lost his fun for the evening. That likely had something to do with the woman-fingers that had slid from his chest to his hip and were sort of massaging the skin there. The back of his neck felt warm and his heart was going kind of fast. Jayne shifted his arms on the table and thought about putting one around her waist. Maybe her craziness was catching, suddenly after all this time.

"RIVER!" A voice, the doc's, finally broke through to the moonbrain. She turned her head so she could see him, but that was all she did. The rest of her stayed draped over Jayne. "River," her brother had his 'doctor' voice on, "you can't – this isn't appropriate. Leave Jayne alone, now," he cajoled. Simon flicked the mercenary a glance, which looked grateful; for not dumping his sister on the floor, or worse, Jayne supposed.

And he didn't know why he hadn't, except that Crazy-girl felt more like Crazy-woman, sitting on him, and he liked it. He felt River go really still against him right then and he figured she'd Read that at the same time he thought it.

"You were in danger," River told him in a low tone. Her voice wasn't entirely steady. He guessed she'd never sensed those kinds of thoughts from someone before, at least not ones about her. "My only motive for initiating physical contact was to rescue you."

He chuckled, and answered with his voice as low as hers. "That so? Well, I'm rescued . . ." he paused to smirk. "So just what, exactly, are you still doin' in my lap?"

River blinked, and stiffened away from him. She paused with her head cocked ot the side, thinking; and then, for a wonder, eased back down against his chest.

Huh.

None of the crew had heard what River had told him about the blonde whore who was now approaching another table, one occupied by a thick brown man. They were all very focused on the bizarre sight of their mercenary with his lap full of psychic genius girl. Jayne couldn't help the little smirk he felt coming on. Their upset, all the commands and entreaties they were aiming at River, it was starting to be downright amusing. To further press some buttons, he went ahead and wrapped an arm around the lithe form of the girl until she wasn't just sitting on him, he was holding her. And it felt good.

Across the table Mal's features tightened and his hand went to his holster. Up until then everyone's threats and pleading had been aimed at River, who they'd assumed was having a crazy spell. That changed now. Inara stood to her feet, but she reached out to stay Mal, not Jayne. Good for her.

"River," Kaylee tried her hand at detaching the two of them, "wouldn't you like to come back to your own chair and finish your meal?"

River rubbed her cheek back and forth against Jayne's shirt. "I am very comfortable," she replied. She ran one arm behind Jayne's back and linked it to the one that lay across his front, so that he suddenly felt as enfolded by her as she was by him. Surprise flame-fingers of desire sparked in his gut. He felt a little tremor run through River, and he thought it was a silent laugh. Here they were all treating her like she'd gone around the bend again, and she was having a joke at their expense.

Well, not at his, because he was sharing the joke. His stomach muscles were tight with holding his own chuckle in. That, and also the closeness of all the woman-curves in his arms. He wondered if he could get away with finding out how some of those curves would feel under his fingers.

River tucked her face into his neck to telegraph her smile to him by touch. He felt her lips curve on his skin, and their movement sent curls of heat down to his groin.

"They're all too easy," she murmured too low for anyone else to hear. He figured she meant the crew's reactions to what she was doing. But he was fast losing his ability to think about anything but what he could do with the delectable little female who was suddenly so accessible.

Mal chose right then to decide he'd had enough.

"Jayne," he commanded in as captain-ey a voice as he could manage, "you let go of her if you want to see any of your cut from the next few hundred jobs. River, get in your own chair, now, or we'll all be giving our fellow customers a bit more interesting meal than they've planned on."

Jayne figured that had probably already happened. There were plenty of stranger's eyes on their little group, anyway. He shrugged, but looked down into River's big brown eyes. They sparkled. He stroked the cloth-covered portion of her thigh with the thumb of his free hand, angled so no crew could see it. River's eyes widened and the teasing flirtiness that had been there flared into hot desire.

"Revelatory,' she said softly. He wasn't too sure what the Bible had to do with this. But his brain had gone right to the bedroom. And then she wriggled in his lap again, and it went straight to the gutter.

River's eyes had been getting hazy, but she suddenly sat up and cast her gaze around the room.

"We should tend to the whore," she said, and it sounded like there was regret in her voice. "She will harm another unless we alert him."

Jayne slid his gaze to the table he'd last seen the blonde approaching; yep, the man there was standing and looked ready to exit with her at his side. Jayne grunted in irritation.

"Guess so," he addressed River, but then dipped his head to whisper. "We'll – revisit this? Later?"

The brown eyes danced now. "Agreed," she said, and nodded, and slid off him. He let his hands trail and he got a nice feel of the bottom that had been pressed distractedly into him. He knew he heard her giggle, and Mal's already furious face hardened further.

"A mission," River addressed the group at large, who obviously expected her to sit and finish eating. She gestured at Jayne and headed to the door before anyone could stop her. The large brown man had already disappeared through it. Right, they were going to the rescue. Jayne sighed, stood up, and followed the psychic. Behind them, he heard some confused discussion; Kaylee called after them questioningly; and then there was the sound of feet following them. But as River and Jayne slipped out the door the others were held up by Maude demanding that they pay their bill before exiting the building.

Down a few blocks lit with street lamps they caught up with their quarry, who hadn't waited long to start getting physical. River hailed them, and Jayne hung back a few steps.

"This woman has nefarious plans," River said to the blonde's customer, folding her hands behind her. "You don't want to go to her bed."

The man shot her a confused, disgruntled look as he drew back from the whore. "Huh?"

River's mouth did an annoyed down-turn.

"She has plans to kill you," Jayne clarified, stepping up and pointing to the blonde. He had his gun out, safety off, held discreetly down at his side in the shadows. "After some drawn-out torture, sounds like. 'less that's yer cuppa tea, you'll likely find better fun back inside."

The man now gave the entertainment he'd already chosen a wary but confused look. He wasn't too bright, Jayne guessed. The blonde woman's lips had pulled back over her teeth, giving her a rather feral look, and both her hands were at her sides. So, Jayne wasn't the only one using the shadows to conceal a weapon.

River's leg flicked out, sudden-like, and there was a clatter as a long wicked-looking knife flew out of the woman's hand. It arched glinting under the streetlight for a brief moment and away into a gutter. There were sounds of Serenity's crew coming up behind them, but Jayne knew they wouldn't get here in time. The brown man backed up with a startled exclamation while the blonde woman snarled. She charged forward, and River met her with a swinging fist. The customer, who'd been staring confusedly, made a move finally with an apparent half-conceived idea of defending the whore. Jayne pivoted on one heel around him, getting an armlock about his neck and dragging him back a few steps while River swiftly laid the blonde out flat on the ground. Jayne watched with admiration. Of course, the prostitute hadn't been a trained fighter; her methods were more devious than that. But still, River fighting was a lovely sight.

He realized that the crew was collected around them when Mal's voice broke in.

"Do we have plans for any more interesting-ness this evening? Or may we go back and finish our meal?"

River looked to the woman unconscious at her feet. "We need to contact the sheriff that she's here," she said. "Tell him to check the knife blade. It will hold proof of what she is."

"Likely we should tie her up," Mal suggested languidly. River nodded.

"This one too," Jayne grunted, getting tired of holding the whore's hapless customer. The man was only struggling half-heartedly, but Jayne clocked him one upside the head anyway. Just hard enough to knock him senseless but not enough to do any serious damage.

No one appeared to have brought any suitable restraints with them to dinner. Finally, Inara shook her head resignedly and stepped out of her shoes, bending to remove her stockings with the statement that they were strong nylon and should hold for awhile. Jayne watched with interest as she hiked her skirt. Then for some reason he darted a glance over at River; and she was aiming a narrow-eyed look back at him. He squinted an apology at her without thinking.

Then he had time to wonder what that had been about, as Mal took over the man he'd been restraining. River slid up next to him.

"Changing precedence," she said, as though that explained the reason why he was suddenly feeling guilty about getting looks at other women.

_Other_ women? Since when did she merit her own separate category? If others were 'other', that meant River wasn't other. He shook his head, bemused. One hour ago she'd mostly been the annoying doctor's annoying little sister. Something had changed . . .

Once they'd left two unconscious people piled just off the road, bound in Kaylee's and Inara's underthings (River had extended a bare leg from under her skirt to exhibit that she had nothing to contribute), they all trouped back to the bar. Mal made an anonymous, audio-only wave to the local law while River finally got to empty her bladder. And then they had their now-cold meal re-heated, with apologies to the cook.

Settling back at the table, River found occasion to imitate what she'd seen Mal and Inara doing earlier. She sneaked her left hand under the tablecloth and settled it on Jayne's thigh. She took a moment to absorb the same pleasure that had surprised her before, when she had sat down on him. She'd never expected to get enjoyment from physical contact with Jayne, but there it was, spiraling into her fingers, up though her arm, and then across her chest.

Jayne's leg muscles tensed under her hand as he absorbed her touching him again, without the excuse of needing to rescue him from whores with evil plans. She let her fingers spread and rub a bit, exploring, but he saw she was careful not to disturb the tablecloth and alert anyone else to what she was doing. Him wanting River wasn't all that surprising, he figured. Her wanting him – that was sudden and all manner of surprising, but he was definitely gonna follow this track and find out where it led.

He took huge bites of the food that was suddenly unimportant, hurrying through his meal to free his right hand. When all that remained was his drink, he picked it up in his left while slipping his other hand down. He rubbed his palm over the back of hers, wrapped his fingers around to turn it over, and twined her digits in between his. She slid her thumb back and forth over his knuckles, discovering his texture and tightening a coil of desire in the pit of his stomach.

He couldn't take much of that. Before long, he wouldn't be able to stand up without giving everyone a clear view of what she was doing to him.

"Time to go," River announced abruptly. Most of the group was finished with their food, but had been lingering over drinks. Kaylee looked up to protest. She'd been leaning into Simon's side with his arm about her shoulders. It wasn't a posture she'd easily surrender.

"Why the hurry, albatross?" Mal asked lazily. Apparently everyone had decided to chalk the earlier River/Jayne scene up to her crazy attempt to rescue him, and his inability to resist accessible female flesh; lamentable, but nothing to dwell over. Though Mal had made a mental note to have a little talk with Jayne at some point.

"The prostitute and her would-be victim have been found, examined medically, and held for questioning. The knife has been discovered where you told them it would be, with her fingerprints and slow-acting poison found on its blade. Connections to a murder three weeks ago are being made. Your wave was traced to this facility, and deputies are on their way here."

"Can we get back to Serenity without being noticed?" Mal was regretful, but he'd straightened. He had no wish to get into a drawn-out affair with the locals.

River nodded.

"And they've enough evidence to bind that woman by law, without speaking with us?" Inara wanted to know.

"What use is Crazy gonna be, if not?" Jayne asked impatiently, standing. He was in a hurry. "Never yet knew a world where mind-reading was admissible evidence."

"He's right," Simon contributed.

Payment was left on the table and they again exited the bar. They fell into natural groupings, walking back to the ship. Mal and Inara led, and the dark seemed to encourage daring; Inara slid her hand candidly into the crook of Mal's arm as they rounded a corner, and he glanced down at her with a small smile. Kaylee and Simon turned the same corner with their arms around one another. Following, not touching, Jayne and River stopped in unspoken concurrence. The corner remain unturned. The street was quiet and empty except for them. Jayne looked down sideways at River, and she met his look wide-eyed under the light of a streetlamp. He moved sudden and pressed her up against the nearby wall with his chest and thighs.

"You just playin' with me back there?" he demanded, knowing that even as fast as he'd moved she wouldn't have let herself be trapped between him and the brick unless she'd wanted to be.

"No," she answered, absorbing the new sensations of all his hardness pressed full-length against her. She swallowed, breathless. "No," she said again. "Unexpected, but ... "

"But good," he supplied when it seemed she couldn't find the word. He hitched her up off the ground to be more on a level with him. His body was already hard with wanting her. Her face coalesced into a smile, wide and beaming, and she moved her arms to hook around his neck.

"Very good," she agreed. "Kiss me."

It was his turn to swallow. He rotated his hips against hers, making her head drop back on the brick and pulling a groan from between the lips that he was contemplating. He breathed heavily against the thumping of his heart. And then before Mal and Simon backtracked looking for them, he leaned in and did it. Kissed her full on the lips, their mouths opening, tongues touching tentatively, and then tangling with growing fierceness. River strained against him, and he groaned as he wedged his hand between them and began to explore any parts of her that she'd let him reach.

Too soon, though, River relaxed back against the wall and opened eyes that had closed in passion. He felt her retreat and backed off too, reluctantly, slowly. Her feet reached the ground once more and he leaned against hands braced on either side of her head, staring sightlessly at the wall. He was still a little shocked at this. He tried to catch his breath, and wondered where this had come from, this fierce emotion and wanting.

"Doesn't matter," River murmured, tilting her face sideways onto his wrist. The hand trembled a little. He unfisted it and stroked a thumb from her eyebrow to the corner of the mouth that had just been causing complicated going-on in his insides. "Only matters where it's going."

"Yeah?" he managed, although his voice was hoarse. "Where is it going?"

Her teeth gleamed startlingly at him in the dim light. "Right now, back to Serenity. Simon is coming."

He'd figured that was why she'd stopped. He shook his head, growling just a bit as he stepped farther back from her. "We keepin' this a secret?" He awaited her answer tensely.

River sighed, following him as they returned to walking. They turned the corner the others had gone around before them. The street stretched wide and straight ahead.

"For now, don't you think?" River replied. Jayne scowled, but then nodded. She reached out to his arm, caressing the muscles there, getting another touch of him before they were back among crew.

Sure enough, Simon appeared at the end of the street, Kaylee trailing him. Mal and Inara were nowhere in sight.

"I'll see you later?" Jayne asked in an undertone, hurriedly. He was again edgy about her answer, but she didn't make him wait.

"Yes," she said, and scintillated up at him. His heart squeezed painfully. "Will – will you come to my room?" She searched his eyes closely, seeming to look for something. He didn't know what, but met her gaze as honestly as he knew how. He only had time to nod before they caught up with Simon and Kaylee.

River didn't register the rest of the walk, only Jayne at her side. Simon talked, questions she supposed, and Jayne must have answered to his satisfaction because there was companionable silence after that. They went back into the grieving space and it was no longer so lonely. Zoë didn't appear, but River could sense her away in her bunk.

"The warrior sleeps in peace," she said as the ramp closed behind the foursome. Inara and Mal were nowhere to be seen either, but there was a flaring of passion from the Companion's shuttle that pushed River into Jayne's side. He didn't put his arm around her because Kaylee had turned at River's words, but she knew he wanted to.

"Zoë's OK?" the mechanic asked anxiously. River nodded back.

"And Mal and Inara are exploring futures." River smiled.

Simon smiled back at his sister, then at his lover. River left the bay and the other two trailed after her. Jayne lingered impatiently, long enough to know everyone was settled where they belonged.

Then, with his gut still coiled in knots of desire, he moved down the corridor and knocked quietly at River's door. It slid aside and she was there, smiling greeting and looking passion up at him. He swallowed, and stepped into her, and knew everything had changed.

Like as not, next restaurant they was in, he would be paying for both of them. And maybe not even minding it.

The End


End file.
